Dinosaurs study for HOD Creation to Christ study

So as a part of the Creation to Christ curriculum, dinosaurs are studied. But not as in depth [of a study] as I want-so I am adding in some goodies for the boy and we'll just mosey along at our speed covering a bit here and there from the resources and activities I have, as well as the study in the guide.

I was looking through my shelves and found most of what I was searching for.  I have to hit the stash in the basement for a couple books (including the dinosaur joke book my hubby had as a kid) but for the most part,  I will use what is shown in this picture.  I am sure I will add a few more notebooking/lapbook components as we go through the unit but this is a good start.

I was just drifting off to sleep the other nite when my brain snapped on and reminded me that I had a set of dinosaur pictures [bulletin board set] that I bought eons ago when the two older kids were very young.  I have not covered the dinos like I have had wanted to with the boy, so I am excited for this unit.  He has always enjoyed dinosaurs (those Jurassic Park movies are on his top 10 list-even tho they are gross) so this should be fun!

We have very, very limited wall space in the education room, so I had to put these puppies up on the entrance walls [which is kind of angled, hence the two pictures to show all of them].  This spot is actually good b/cuz the boy sits so he can look up at them, at any time.  I DID NOT put the evolutionist time line up-what I want to do is put up a couple note cards highlighting a few Bible verses that mention the leviathan.  The little people are to show the scale (although this is far from being accurate) of the dinosaurs to humans.

Resources:

Answers in Genesis Magazine (love this site)

(you can get the Answers books there too)

Dinosaur notebooking pages

Lapbook components from Homeschool Share

the other books I probably got from Amazon

I have no idea where I got the dino bulletin board set-

it would have been from a teacher's store/catalog

The Adventures in Science: Dinosaurs booklet is 

probably out of print-it came in a group of activity books

 that I also bought years ago.  It has a bunch 

of activity pages and such...so I will just pick and choose

 what we want to do.

OH YEAH!  I just remembered I have the 

Dinosaur and Things Game by Aristoplay!

I bought this when my oldest was about 4/5 yrs old!  By the looks of the box, you can tell it's been played with a lot!  :)  Even tho the boy is on the outer age limit noted on the box, we'll still play but be sure to add those question cards to make it a bit more difficult. And yes, we know this shows millions of years as the dates-we simply ignore them.  

Heart of Dakota: Creation to Christ curriculum for the boy

So after much deliberation, examination, ponder-ation, and prayer-ation:  I took the leap and bought the guide to use with the boy.  We have been skimming along with history this year because we simply didn't have the cashola before the start of this school year to purchase much material.  So we made do. Which is totally acceptable, esp. when I have a boat load of books on the shelves. We wrapped up a few snippets of American history from our previous study...but it didn't last long.  So we've been lacking in that subject for him for the most part! Ouch!  That is not acceptable for this history loving mama!  So I debated. I am was sadly devoid of early/beginning times to ancient civilizations for my elementary age kids (well now it is just one kid) and so I wanted to find something-something that would hit that era with good coverage but not be so in depth or overwhelming that he'd run in fear every time we did our history lessons.

image from Heart of Dakota

So after reading my good friend Lynn's 4 posts on the Heart of Dakota curriculum....and after all those "ation" thoughts noted above...I felt good about purchasing the guide which covers creation to Christ.  I already have most of the books needed on my shelves or in my 'puter (as eBooks) so it wasn't hard to make the final decision.

Anyway-I received the guide today and I will start to get a handle on what I need to do [read thru it to figure it all out], wait for a couple books I had to order and get him started in another week or so.  We'll just keep on with it until it is done (probably sometime next spring).

I do love how the Charlotte Mason style is integrated into the whole enchilada.  With HOD (Heart of Dakota) the plans cover Bible, History, Science, Lang. Arts, Narration, Copywork, and she has math (Singapore) scheduled in it too.  I use Abeka math for the younger years, so (as noted in the guide) we'll do our own thing.  I will also throw in a bit of my own ideas/plans for lang. art stuff (I am not using their Reading Program) and am changing the science up a tad (he doesn't want to cover the human body so I will do a more in depth study of dinosaurs since we haven't really had the time to do that. I may be able to toss in a bit of the human body stuff later).

What is missing is the study of great artists/musicians and nature study.  So maybe when I get some time I will write a complimentary guide to go with it on those very things :) But that is OK, I do my own thing with those anyway and I enjoy coming up with my plans for it. Actually, I have decided to continue on with the Impressionist artists and plan on adding in a bit of a mini-study on Egyptian art and poss. Roman/Greek art too. The musician has yet to be determined, and nature study is always a breeze to include.

So there you have it-our new way of doing things for the boy this year and next.  I will try to post some updates as we move through it but until then, take a look see at what my pal Lynn wrote (some great, thorough posts) about HOD.

(about the Preparing Hearts for His Glory but the layout is the same for the other guides and it gives you a good glimpse of what the goal/layout is)

Ladybug Chronicles (my pal Lynn's blog)

Post 1: Lang. Arts

Post 2: Science

Part 3: History

Part 4: Poetry and Bible